New Books Network
Military History
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight January 21, 2021

The Saddest Words

William Faulkner's Civil War

Michael Gorra

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Michael Gorra about his new book The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War (Liveright, 2020). This episode touches on two of William Faulkner’s novels in particular: The Sound and …

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Military History January 18, 2021

Britain's War

A New World, 1942-1947

Daniel Todman

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
The second of Daniel Todman's two sweeping volumes on Great Britain and World War II, Britain's War: A New World, 1942-1947 (Oxford UP, 2020), begins with the event Winston Churchill called …
Military History January 8, 2021

Adaptation Under Fire

How Militaries Change in Wartime

David Barno and Nora Bensahel

Hosted by Scott Lipkowitz
Few human enterprises are as complex, dynamic, and unpredictable as war. Armed conflict substitutes the relatively ordered reality of peace with the undeniably chaotic reality of combat. Militaries, by design …
History January 6, 2021

A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
The First World War was marked by an exceptional expansion in the use and production of military cartography. But World War II took things even further, employing maps, charts, reconnaissance …
East Asian Studies December 30, 2020

China's Muslims and Japan's Empire

Centering Islam in World War II

Kelly A. Hammond

Hosted by Ed Pulford
The 1930s-40s expansion of the Japanese empire was marked by significant interest among Japan-based scholars and policy-makers in China’s Muslim population and how best to write them into a new …
British Studies December 28, 2020

Occupied America

British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution

Donald F. Johnson

Hosted by Charles Prior
When we read the Declaration of Independence, what tends to jump off the page are the lofty propositions concerning natural rights. Yet over a third of the brief document is …
Military History December 22, 2020

The Gallipoli Evacuation

Peter Hart

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
One of the most well-told episodes of the First World War, the 1915 Gallipoli expedition, also has its own long-ignored aspects - specifically, the story of how the Allied force …
History December 17, 2020

Sarajevo 1914

Sparking the First World War

Mark Cornwall

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. This key event in 20th-century history continues to fascinate the public imagination, yet few historians have …
History December 16, 2020

Tank Warfare

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
The story of the battlefield in the 20th century was dominated by a handful of developments. Foremost of these was the introduction and refinement of tanks. In Tank Warfare (Indiana UP …
Eastern European Studies December 9, 2020

Men Under Fire

Motivation, Morale, and Masculinity among Czech Soldiers in the Great War, 1914–1918

Jiří Hutečka

Hosted by Steven Seegel
In historical writing on World War I, Czech-speaking soldiers serving in the Austro-Hungarian military are typically studied as Czechs, rarely as soldiers, and never as men. As a result, the …
East Asian Studies December 8, 2020

China's Good War

How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism

Rana Mitter

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
Although World War II had been largely remembered in the People’s Republic of China as an experience of victimization since its founding in 1949, that view has been changing since …
History December 3, 2020

For Might and Right

Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy

Michael Brenes

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Donald Trump campaigned on a great many things in 2016, but one of the issues he used to criticize Democrats was their role in supporting sequestration and cuts to …
Chinese Studies December 1, 2020

Mao's Third Front

The Militarization of Cold War China

Covell F. Meyskens

Hosted by Suvi Rautio
In 1964, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a momentous policy decision. In response to rising tensions with the United States and Soviet Union, a top-secret massive military industrial complex …
History November 30, 2020

All Against All

The Long Winter of 1933 and the Origins of the Second World War

Paul Jankowski

Hosted by Steven Rodriguez
In his latest monograph, All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and The Origins of the Second World War (Harper, 2020), Professor Paul Jankowski (Brandeis University) provides a wide-angled …
History November 30, 2020

Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance

Jeremy M. Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
History and geography delineate the operation of power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the …
Eastern European Studies November 27, 2020

The Women of the Arrow Cross Party

Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War

Andrea Pető

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Andrea Pető's book The Women of the Arrow Cross Party: Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) analyses the actions, background, connections and the eventual trials of …
Military History November 18, 2020

Small Boats and Daring Men

Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy

Benjamin F. Armstrong

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding …
History November 13, 2020

The United States of War

A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State

David Vine

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Since its founding, the United States has been at peace for only eleven years. Across nearly two-and-a-half centuries, that’s a lot of war. In his new book, The United States …
British Studies November 9, 2020

The Bloody Flag

Mutiny in the Age of Atlantic Revolution

Niklas Frykman

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The 1790s were a decade of turmoil and strife across the West. With the French Revolution, a new era of wars began that invoked the language of equal rights. In …
American Studies November 4, 2020

The Emergence of American Amphibious Warfare, 1898 to 1945

David S. Nasca

Hosted by Scott Lipkowitz
Amphibious warfare, as outlined by American Rear Admiral James E. Jouett in 1885, was a relatively straightforward affair: to project power from the sea, all one had to do was …